


People Are Crazy

by Yadirocks



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 20:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5553833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yadirocks/pseuds/Yadirocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Yadier is hurt and the Cardinals are playing a huge game against their division rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Adam's confidence in his pitching plummets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	People Are Crazy

Adam knocked on the door, shuffling a few papers in his hands. The smell of roses and lilacs from the garden nearby was enough to make him feel ill. Along with the garden, the front yard contained two apple trees that stood just in front of the gate, a large oak tree with a tire swing dangling from one of its longer limbs, and ivy that crept up the left side of the house. Purple and pink flowers sprouted from the ivy, making it look more pleasant.

When there was no answer, Adam rang the doorbell. "Come on, Yadi, I know you're home!" he yelled, hoping that the catcher could hear him through the door. The most likely place Yadier was right now was in his living room, his knee propped up on the recliner and watching Baseball Tonight. He didn't care if Yadier was pouting over his knee being too swollen to play, according to the trainers. Adam needed to talk to the catcher, now.

A shuffling sound came from the other side of the door. "What do you want, Adam? I thought we had a deal that you wouldn't bother me while I'm hurt," the catcher said, his voice muffled by the mahogany door.

"You and I both know that I was on meds when I made that promise," Adam said, and banged on the door again. "Let me in, I need to talk to you."

As heavy and thick as the door was, Adam could hear Yadier's sigh from the inside before the lock clicked and the brass knob turned. Yadier opened the door, and Adam nearly laughed out loud at his appearance. He was only in a pair of boxers and white fuzzy socks, and his right knee was wrapped in gauze. 

Before Adam could comment, Yadier said, "Don't you dare. I wasn't preparing to have company. Not like you haven't seen me in my boxers before."

Adam felt himself blush at this, but Yadier turned just as his face went red. Adam breathed a sigh of relief, following the catcher inside. Yadier closed and locked the door behind him. 

"Why didn't you call and tell me you were coming? And quit staring at me like that," Yadier snapped, noticing Adam giving him an amused look, his eyes mocking Yadier's appearance.

"I can't help it. I didn't expect you to be the type to wear fuzzy socks," Adam admitted.

Yadier raised an eyebrow. "Keep in mind, Adam, that you tried taking all your clothes off after a night at the bar and even though I kept slapping you on our way to the hotel, you ended up in nothing but a speedo."

Adam remembered that story. Yadier had laughed his butt off when telling Adam about it the next day. In front of Matt Holliday and Jhonny. In the locker room. Where everyone could hear it.

"Fine, I'll stop. Geez, you're crabby when you're injured," Adam said, sitting down on the couch and going over the papers in his hands. Yadier plopped down in the recliner, covering himself back up with a thick, red blanket. "For your information, I didn't call ahead because I figured you wouldn't be home anyway, but here you are."

"Why wouldn't I be home?"

"You have a habit of not staying in one place when you're hurt. I think you have ADD or something."

Yadier laughed, before asking, "So why are you here? I have a feeling you didn't just come to make fun of me and my fuzzy socks."

Adam took a deep breath. "Well, you're right about that," he said. "Actually, I came here to talk to you about tomorrow's game. It's a big one, as you know. I need your advice."

The catcher glanced at him. "Why would you need my help? I'm just a catcher," he said, yawning.

"You're not just a catcher, Yadi. I know that you know every single weakness of every single hitter on the Pirates. You remember things that I can't remember to save my life. I need to pick your brain, or tomorrow might end in a disaster," Adam said, hoping to get through to Yadier. 

It was silent for a moment. Adam looked over, wondering if Yadier had heard him, but the catcher was scribbling something down. "Crap," he said as his phone buzzed. "Adam, go into the kitchen. There's a bottle on the island in there. It's time to take my pain meds."

"You're not going to go all loopy on me, are you?" Adam asked warily. Yadier shrugged. "No promises."

It didn't take long to find the bottle. Yadier's kitchen was huge, but the island was small. He was happy that he didn't have to dig through Yadier's medicine cabinet like he had to when he just so happened to forget to take his painkiller for the torn ligament in his thumb. That time, Adam had nearly broken the cabinet searching for the small little bottle that Yadier said it was in. It ended up being in a large bottle with a red cap. From then on, he decided that he wouldn't listen to Yadier's instructions when he was on a lot of meds.

When Adam returned, Yadier was rubbing his face tiredly. "Need a break?" Adam asked. Yadier shook his head. "If I take a break, I'll fall asleep," he admitted, taking the pain meds and popping two in his mouth. He took a gigantic gulp of water from his glass on the coffee table.

"What are you writing?" Adam asked. Yadier glanced at him. "Everything I know about every single Pirates hitter that you need to worry about," Yadier told him, shaking out his hand. 

It took almost half an hour for Yadier to write it all down. Adam tried making small talk while he did this, needing something to steal his attention. "Where's Wanda and the kids?" he asked, noticing that Yadier seemed to be the only one home.

"Wanda took them to visit her aunt for the week. She wanted to cancel when I got hurt, but I told her to go. I've had enough knee injuries to know my limits," he told Adam. Adam rolled his eyes, knowing this was a lie. The last time Yadier had hurt his knees, Wanda called him and he had to come over to watch Yadier to make sure he didn't take too much of his meds. It was really bad that time, but this time it wasn't too bad. His knee was only swollen a little bit, but enough for it to be too painful to catch.

Adam watched him work in silence for a while. He looked at the TV, which was on The Price is Right. Adam found himself watching the show instead of paying attention to Yadier, and when he turned his head a while later, the catcher had his eyes closed, his pencil stopped mid-sentence.

Taking the pencil from his fingers, Adam said, "Yadi, wake up, buddy."

It took a moment, but Yadier finally opened his eyes. "Sorry," he said, and began to take the pencil back to write again, but Adam shook his head. "I'll just take what you have written down. You need to sleep. The faster you heal, the faster you can come back."

Yadi shook his head, but he was already laying his head back. Adam took the notebook from his lap. "Thank you," he said, hugging Yadier. "Are you sure you don't need someone to come in and check on you? I can make Chris do it, he doesn't have anything to do."

"I'm fine, Adam," he whispered. "But thank you. Good luck tomorrow."

Adam smiled, leaning the recliner back for him. "Need anything else?" he asked. Yadier shook his head, already drifting off. Adam pulled the blankets over him some more. "Get well soon," he whispered, taking the notebook and his papers. He locked the door behind him, and before he left, he called Chris. "Come and check on Yadi in a few hours. He'll probably be sleeping, but I just don't want him to OD on his medication."

Chris sighed from the other end. "Why is it that you always call me to go check on people? Why don't they ever call me?" he asked.

"I'm the only one who likes you," Adam teased. "Besides, Yadi's too stubborn to admit that he's in pain or that he needs help. You know that."

He could tell Chris was thinking hard on the other end. "Okay," he gave in. "I'll check on him. You owe me one, though."

_______________________

"You got any threes?"

"Nope. Go fish."

Michael sighed, exaggerating his frustration as he slammed his hand on the deck of cards and picked one up. He cursed under his breath. "I hate this game."

"You got any better ideas, Mikey?" Jhonny asked.

"Watch grass grow, try to teach a rock to jump, stare at the sun..." Michael trailed off, sorting his cards.

Both looked up when Adam came in, and Michael jumped up, knocking over the card table and scattering cards everywhere. "I'm not cleaning that up," Jhonny said.

"Thank goodness you came back. I felt like ripping my hair out if Jhonny told me 'go fish' one more time!" Michael yelled, following Adam to his locker. "Where were you, anyway?"

"Yadi's. I got some information from him about a few hitters for tonight. It's not much, but it's better than what I had before," Adam said, sitting down and going over the notes again. In all reality, Yadier's notes were hard to follow. It was stuff that the catcher understood completely, and that was what made him so unique, but it made Adam's head feel like it was about to explode.

Michael sat next to him, reading some of the stuff. "What does it mean by 'watch for the drop?' Marte doesn't have a drop in his swing," he said. 

Adam sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I don't know. Maybe Tony can make sense of it," he wondered out loud, flipping the notebook back to the original cover. "I need to go talk to him before the game begins. Whatever Yadi wrote down is important. He knows these hitters better than anyone."

Michael nodded, frowning whenever Adam got up to leave. "Wait, right now? No, you just got here! Don't leave me with Jhonny to play more Go Fish!"

"Well, come with me. I'm sure Mike can find something for you to do," Adam said, knowing full well what Michael's response would be.

"...Jhonny, I guess I'm ready for another round of Go Fish when you are."

_________________

Adam searched all over the clubhouse, field, and bullpen for Tony. The backup catcher was hard to find, he realized. How did Yadier keep up with this kid?

Finally, Adam walked through the hall leading to Mike's office, wondering if Mike could help him out. Sure enough, there was Tony, seated in the chair in front of Mike's desk. He was scribbling down notes from video, but turned his head when he felt eyes on him. "Hey, Waino, just getting ready for tonight," he said, gesturing to tablet in his lap.

"That's what I came to talk to you about, actually," Adam said, pulling up a chair and sitting next to Tony. "I went to see Yadi today."

Tony turned off his video, frowning at Adam. "Was he okay?" he asked, worry in his eyes. Adam gave a small smile. "He was fine, for now at least. Anyway, I asked him for help with some stuff on the Pirates players. He jotted down a bunch of notes, but I can't understand them. Do you think you could?"

Tony shrugged, taking the notebook from Adam. He sighed when he saw the stuff Yadier had written down. "To be honest with you, Adam, Yadi has never let me see his notes. He's always told me they're a bit too complicated, even for him. Whatever is in here makes sense to Yadi because it's his thought process, and his is different from my own. I hate to say it, but I don't think these notes will help up," Tony said, his eyes scanning the page for any words he could make out. "He's also slipping in and out of Spanish a lot in these notes, which leads me to believe that he was not in the right mind when jotting these down."

"He had just taken his medicine," Adam admitted. Tony gave him a sad look. "I'm sorry, Adam. I've got a lot of notes of my own right here, though. I'm going to do whatever it takes to win this game."

As Adam stood and left, he felt worry tug at his heart. What if he cost his team a huge game? It was his job, after all, to go out there and do what was best, pitch his best, play his best. Adam wondered how Yadier was able to handle the anxiety of everyday pitch calling. Then again, when Adam looked down at his notes, maybe that anxiety was driving Yadier crazy after all.

 

It was ten minutes before game time. Adam sat in the dugout, his arm wrapped in a towel, trying to calm himself down. He stared at Yadier's notes, wishing he knew what the catcher had been trying to say. He glanced to the sideline near the Pirates dugout, watching Starling Marte swing. He frowned, and watched a little bit closer. He gasped, leaping up. "I've got it!"

Tony, who was sitting next to him, jumped from fright. "Got what?" he asked. 

"'Watch the drop' means his back foot! Where he drops his back foot is different every time, Tony! And then the notes 'front equals changeup, back equals curveball' means that if his back foot ends up closer to the front of the box, throw him a changeup-"

"And if it lands in the back, throw a curve!" Tony said, realizing how huge this was. "Okay, so we've got Marte down. What about the rest of the eight hitters?"

Adam shrugged, glancing at Yadier's notes. "Well, this one for McCutchen says 'keep leg down.' I guess that means that you need to keep your leg down. He does foul it back a lot. Or it means that he keeps his front leg down when he hits. I guess we'll figure that out. We can continue to look at this between innings," Adam said, feeling a bit more confident than before.

Tony smiled. "Even when he's not here, Yadier's genius never ceases to astound me," he muttered, hopping from the bench and grabbing his mask. "C'mon, Waino, it's showtime!"

Indeed it was. After the first five innings, Adam felt like he was soaring. He had eleven strikeouts because of Yadier's and Tony's notes, and his arm felt better than it ever had before. The only run for the Pirates came on a stolen base and an error, and then a sacrifice fly. The Cardinals were smoking the Pirates 8-1, and it felt good to finally feel like he knew what he was doing.

After the seventh inning, Mike took him out. Adam glared at him as he came out to the mound. "What, Mike?" he asked. Mike gestured to the bullpen. "We have a seven run lead, Adam. Let's save your arm for the next game."

Adam shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving," he said.

"Adam-"

"Mike, you don't understand. Tony and I have finally deciphered Yadier's notes, and we're rolling right now. Let me finish, Mike. I need to finish this."

The manager sighed. "I'm sorry, Adam. I don't think it's a good idea."

Adam stomped to the dugout and threw his glove on the bench. He plopped down ungracefully.

_________________

When the game was over, the Cardinals barely holding on to win 8-5, Adam sat in the locker room. Everyone had left, but he was waiting to talk to Mike. He wanted to make sure he knew he had been extremely mad about being taken out.

Before Mike came out of his office, Adam's phone buzzed. He took it out of his pocket and saw that it was Chris. Maybe he was calling him to tell him that Yadi was doing fine. Adam answered it. "Hey, CC, what's up?"

"Adam, get over here now. I can't find Yadi. His car is here and so are his keys. He's somewhere in this house, but I can't find him. I'm worried, Adam."

"He wasn't in the recliner? How did you get inside?" 

Chris paused. "The door was unlocked..."

Adam felt his heart beat in his chest. He knew for sure that he had locked the door before he left. "Okay, I'm coming. Maybe he just...he decided he needed some fresh air and went outside for a while and then forgot to lock the house back up. I'm sure he's fine."

That's what Adam tried to tell himself, but he couldn't help but fear that his friend was in danger.

He hopped in his truck, turning on the engine. He was driving down Yadier's road when he saw something. He pulled over and got out of the truck. Someone was laying in the grass, and his face fell when he saw that they had gauze wrapped around their knee.

He ran down the hill to Yadier, rolling him onto his back. It was definitely the catcher, who was still in his fuzzy socks and boxers. Adam was about to check for a pulse when Yadier opened his eyes. "Hey, Waino," he said, a smile on his face.

"Yadi, what the heck do you think you were doing?" Adam asked. "You could've been killed."

"Just went for a walk. Waino, my knee hurts."

Adam glared at him. "Did you take your medicine before you were supposed to?"

Yadier giggled. "Maybe," he slurred. Adam shook his head. "Mike is going to kill you," he said, helping Yadier onto his feet and helping him to the truck. "That's it, now that I'm done pitching until our road trip, you don't have a choice. I'm watching over you. Make sure you don't decide to go swimming or something."

Yadier giggled again, turning his head and whispering in his ear, "You used my notes, didn't you?"

Adam looked down at him, before helping him into the car. "I did. They were crazy, but so is the person who wrote them," he snapped.

The car ride back to Yadier's house was silent. Then again, it was only half a mile. Adam pulled up to the house, waving at Chris when he came out in a panic and mouthing 'I found him.'

As he was helping Yadier back into his recliner, the catcher murmured, "Wanna know a secret?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "I'm not really sure I do, Yadi."

Yadier motioned for him to come closer, cupping his hands around Adam's ear and whispering, "Don't tell Waino, but he's my best friend."

Adam smiled, and whispered, "I won't tell a soul."

Yadier smiled smugly, before passing out in the recliner. Adam shook his head. "It's a good thing you're my best friend too, Yadi."


End file.
